Final few days

Day 3 of skiing (Friday)

It was even colder on day 3 than day 2, but we still had a great time on the slopes!  We decided to explore the "Fun Park", which is a series of ramps and things to do tricks on.  I just skied through it, Laura was a little more brave and went off of a couple ramps.  They also had a "big air" jump set up with a huge air bag to catch you after jumping.  I didn't want to have anything to do with it, but again Laura thought it would be fun.  She tried it a couple times and enjoyed it.  :)

After skiing we went to the restaurant at the bottom of the mountain to have a nice dinner together.  We put in our name and they told us to go downstairs and have a drink and they would come get us when our table was ready.  On our way down the stairs an older (very intoxicated) gentleman was walking down and saying something in Swedish about his feet being cold (at least that's what I got from it since he was just in socks and kept looking at his feet).  We told him we didn't understand what he was saying and he kept responding in Swedish.  Then he just said "Come with me".  We followed him into the bar in the basement and he introduced us to his co-workers (they were a bunch of guys, I guess about 10 of them in total, that worked for some kind of window installation company and they had a conference there or something).  We ended up hanging out and drinking with these guys for awhile, they bought us a few drinks and then they invited us to join them for dinner.  Most of them knew English very well, but we found that the further north we went, the less English everyone knew.  They paid for our dinner and said they enjoyed our company and were happy to have the opportunity to practice their English.  We talked a little bit about sports and they were surprised to find out that bowling is not ranked as one of the most popular sports to watch in America.  They have watched shows like The Simpsons and The Flinstones and got the idea that bowling is HUGE in the U.S.  I thought that was quite funny.
After dinner a bunch of us went back to the bar in the basement where there was an Asian guy who called himself "Yellow Mike" playing guitar and singing.  He sang LOTS of American songs: "Don't Stop Believing" by Journey, "Hey Jude" by The Beatles, even some Tenacious D and EVERYONE in the bar sang along.  They all knew all of the words.  It was unbelievable!  I took some video with Laura's phone, but you really can't hear it.  When he was done playing we went to a place a few feet away that was like a night club.  The same guy got up on stage with a full band this time and played some Blur, White Stripes, Blink 182, etc.  Everyone knew those songs as well.  A very fun night!  But we had to get up early to get to the dog sled tour in the morning.

Dog Sled Tour (Saturday)

snowy road

We drove about 2 hours away to go on the dog sled tour.  The roads were completely covered in snow, but the drive wasn't too bad (I say that because I made LJ drive).  At least it was light out.  The dogs were so happy!  They were playing in the snow, rolling around in it, and eating it.  Their tails were wagging like crazy, they were ready to run.  The company is run by this adorable little French lady named Anne.  She was very friendly and very talkative.  After showing us how to control the sled, we took off.  We went through an area with a lake, but there was at least a couple FEET of snow on the ground, so you couldn't see where the lake was.  It was beautiful!!!  Mountains in the background, snow covered trees, it was amazing!    

  

We stopped a few times to let the dogs rest.  It was freezing, by the way.  By the end of the 2 hour tour I was completely frozen and I couldn't feel my feet or hands at all.  We went into a little tipi and ate lunch.  We had LOTS of food.  We started off with some glogg and some reindeer sausage.  Then we had ham and cheese sandwhiches on polar bread (some kind of flat bread).  Then we had some soup and some reindeer burgers.  They were actually pretty good.  I guess they eat a lot of reindeer meat in the north.  Then we had some cinnamon roll things for dessert. 

Tipi where we had lunch

inside the tipi



It was all very good, we LOVED the dog sled tour.  Then we had to drive back and get a little sleep before we had to head to the airport.

Heading Home (Saturday night/Sunday)

After the dog sled tour we went back to our hotel and slept for a few hours before we had to get up and pack and get to the airport.  We left around 11pm (4pm St. Louis time).  Around 12:30 or so we decided we should probably stop for gas.  Except that ALL of the gas stations were closed (and there really aren't many around to begin with).  We found some that would take credit cards except that in Europe they have "smart cards" or something where they have a pin number with their credit card.  So since our cards don't have a pin, we weren't able to buy gas with them.  We finally found a gas station that would take cash, so we put in 500 kronor (about 75 U.S. dollars) and tried to pump the gas.  Obviously, everything was in Swedish and we didn't know what it was saying.  We ended up somehow canceling the transaction, but this machine does not give change.  So we have to call them to get our money back... annoying.  But someone else stopped to get gas and she was nice enough to help us through the process so we could get back on the road.  When we were about an hour outside of the airport, we needed gas again.  But this time we couldn't find a pump that would take cash.  So finally I called my credit card company's emergency line (because it was outside of their normal business hours) and they were able to put a pin on my card so we could use it at the pump.  This was added to our list of things we will know for next time.  Haha!  It was a really good thing we left super early to get to the airport because the drive with all of the different stops at gas stations took us about 7 1/2 hours.  Oh, and I forgot to mention that there was a full on blizzard going on outside.  Laura drove the entire way because I was terrified to drive in it and I would drive really slow.  Since we were cutting it a little close getting to the airport on time, she just drove the whole way.  She is my hero.

The flight from Stockholm to Newark was uneventful, which was nice.  We watched a couple movies and slept a bit.  We had about 4 hours in Newark before we had to board for our flight to St. Louis.  We got something to eat and then started to head to our gate, but it was blocked off.  The entire airport was shut down and all of the planes were grounded.  We had no idea what was going on, we were all just standing there waiting for them to let us go.  After about 20 or 30 mins I guess, they let us go.  They never said what was going on, but I guess it was some sort of security breach.  Anyway, no problems with the flight back to St. Louis  And we are home!  What an amazing and wonderful adventure!!!

Day 2 of skiing

Not much to report today...  It was a bit colder today than yesterday, I think around 7 degrees F.  We had to take a couple thaw breaks.  It was so cold this morning that we didn't go very far up the mountain for a couple hours.  Haha!  Our skiing improved a bit today.  We are definitely both still beginners, but we're starting to feel a little more comfortable out there.  LJ even jumped on her skis on some of the flat parts.  I'm not quite there yet.  :) 

LJ on the mountain

View from the chair lift

Me skiing

For one of our thaw breaks, we stopped at a little tipi in the middle of the mountain for some kaffe (coffee), soup, and some amazing white chocolate with cashews in it.  They love their desserts here, and I love them for it! 

Me standing outside the tipi restaurant

Table inside the tipi restaurant

Me inside the tipi restaurant

LJ in the tipi restaurant

Another day in Stockholm, the drive, and day 1 skiing

Monday

Monday morning we met up with the American and Canadian girls and went to the Vasa Museum.  The Vasa was a war ship that sank before even making it out of the harbor on it's maiden voyage in 1628.  Over 300 years later it was recovered and they rebuilt the entire thing.  The pieces they didn't find they used a lighter color wood so you could see what was original and what wasn't.

They even had some of the bones on display of the people who were onboard when it sank.  Kinda creepy, but cool.

After the museum we went on a winter boat tour in the Baltic Sea.  We saw lots of castles and cool looking buildings and heard a lot about the history of the different islands we passed by.  On the boat we had some glögg, which is mulled wine served with raisins and almonds.  It was really good! 
Laura and I did some more shopping after the boat tour and we all met back up and met with Malin, her boyfriend, Erik, and her son Oscar for dinner.  We had a couple drinks that we didn't realize were about $20 each!  Everything is very expensive here.  Dinner was good, though.  After we ate we just went back to the room and went to bed so we could get an early start the next day.

Tuesday

Tuesday morning we got up and went to the Kungsgården outdoor ice rink to skate.  That was a lot of fun!  There were only a few people there and most of them left while we skated so we basically had the whole place to ourselves.  After skating around a bit it was time to go pack up our things and check out of the hotel.

We went back to the Arlanda airport to pick up our rental car and then headed to Sälen, a 6 1/2 hour drive.  Once outside of Stockholm and the area around the airport, "major" highways become 2 lane roads covered in snow.  We drove through a snow storm for awhile, which was really pretty, but also a little scary.  We didn't have any problems driving, it was just all snow covered and dark.

  We got to the hotel about a half an hour after the reception desk closed, something they failed to mention to me when booking.  So no one was there to give us the key to our room.  There were a few envelopes there that had people's names on them, but not one with my name.  We called every number we could find and didn't get any answers.  Desparate, LJ grabbed a magazine and flipped to the back.  There were about 50 phone numbers for hotels, restaurants, etc. in the area.  She randomly chose one in the middle of the page, for a different hotel.  The woman that answered just happened to actually be friends with the guy that handles all of the booking at our hotel.  So she called him and he (or someone he called and sent) came to the hotel to give us our key.  How lucky and random is that?  So thanks Daniel, I feel like you may have had something to do with that. 
Our room is awesome!  It has a little kitchen with a table, oven, microwave, dishwasher, etc.  It has a living room and 2 bedrooms with bunkbeds in each.  AND it's right on the mountain.  We can step outside of our hotel and ski straight to the lift.  AWESOME!

 








So today was our first day of skiing (LJ's first time ever and my second).  We got our lift tickets and our rental skis and then we were going to sign up for lessons.  We decided to play around with a skis a bit and it turns out Laura is a natural.  She figured it out right away, so we decided not to do the lessons and just explore.  We have already done most of the green runs at this point, it's lots of fun.  The mountains are beautiful!  We took lots of pictures.  I only fell twice and Laura didn't fall at all!!! 
After skiing we went to ICA (a grocery store) at the bottom of the mountain, which is just a short walk from our hotel.  We picked up some eggs, bread, lunch meat, cheese, salmon, and pasta.  Yum!  We made the salmon and pasta for dinner and it was delicious! 
More excitement tomorrow!

First couple days in Stockholm

Yesterday (Sat) I watched Laura line the broze metal game between Finland (Suomi) and the Czech Republic.  It was a good game, fun to watch.  Finland came out on top and I overheard one of their coaches saying that they went from 7th place last year to 3rd place this year.  They were extremely excited over their victory... and the Czech girls cried.
Then I sat with Laura and the other officials and watched the U.S. vs Canada game for the championship.  The U.S. outplayed Canada throughout the entire game and won with a score of 5-2 I believe.  It was a really fast paced game and definitely exciting to watch.
After the game we all went back to the hotel where the officials stayed and played a couple rounds of Kings/Circle of Death with almost all of the officials.  Great group of girls, lots of fun!  Around 2:30am someone told us that the trains stop running at 3am and Laura hadn't packed her bags yet to go to our hotel in the city.  So we stayed and drank for about another hour and slept there until 7am or so and took the train back to our hotel.  We went downstairs to the restaurant (Ming) for our free breakfest which included eggs (scrambled, hard boiled, and soft boiled), salomi, meatballs, some sort of mini hot dog, and lo mein.  Interesting, but very good!  Then we slept for a couple more hours.
We went to see the ceremonial changing of the gaurds at the Royal Palace.  It lasted about 45 mins and was really cool to see.  We got some pictures and some video, which I'm sure LJ will post on Facebook at some point.  After that, we went to go warm up in an old dungeon that was transformed into a cafe and then went shopping for souvenirs.  Later we went to Malin's house (one of the officials who lives here in Stockholm) and met up with her, the other US official and the 2 Canadian officials.  We went to a pizza place for dinner.  They had a specialty pizza called the Dallas... filet mignon, hollandaise sause, and ham and cheese.  Interesting, I've never had one of those in Dallas.  After dinner we went to the Stockholm Ice Bar.  A bar made completely of ice, the walls, the bar itself, and even the glasses all made of ice.  We took lots of pictures there, it was really cool (no pun intended).
Now we're back at the hotel and ready to get some sleep for a long, eventful day tomorrow!  God natt!

Shaky Start

I haven't left St. Louis yet and I already have something to blog about, I hope the rest of the week goes a little more smoothly.  I decided to get up early this morning (4am) to better acclimate myself to the 7 hour time difference in Sweden… good thing I did.  At 5am I got an email from Expedia saying my 10:45am flight to Toronto was cancelled and I would fly out on the same flight tomorrow… wait, tomorrow?  what?  WHAT?!?!  I immediately called Expedia, who told me everything still looked fine for my flight this morning.  Um, Expedia randomly sends flight cancellation notices for flights that aren’t cancelled?  I don’t think so.  So I call Continental Airlines, they confirm the flight is cancelled due to bad weather in Toronto and find me a flight leaving at 9:55am to Newark then to Stockholm.  Awesome!!!

So I call my buddy David (who, by the way, is like the best friend EVER) and tell him to pick me up at 7 instead of 8 to go to the airport.  No problem, he says.  So I get to the ticket counter around 7:20am and they can’t check me in because Air Canada cancelled the flight this morning so Air Canada needs to re-book me on Continental, Continental can’t do it themselves.  After talking to Air Canada for 2 hours (yes, 2 HOURS) I was finally able to get my boarding passes only to find out that my flight to Newark is delayed 3 hours for weather.  But they put me in an exit row for free and gave me a snack voucher, not quite as cool as being moved to first class, but it's something.  :)

While I waited, I started reading my book The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein.  It's a novel about a family, except that it is narrated by the family dog.  I made it to page 4 before it made me cry, good thing I brought some tissues!

Intro/The Plan

I decided to be cool like LJ and write a blog while we are in Sweden.  This will be my first time flying over an ocean (I went to Mexico once, so I can't technically say it's my first time out of the country).

I leave Friday, Jan. 7th and will meet up with LJ on Saturday, Jan. 8th before the final 2 games of the IIHF World Women's U18 Championship in Stockholm, Sweden.  Hopefully I will get a chance to see my girl in action, but if nothing else, I'll get to watch some fantastic hockey! 

After a couple days in Stockholm, we will head north to Sälen (near Mora on the map above).  We will ski at Stöten for 3 days (Jan. 12th - 14th) and will follow that up with a 2-hour dog sled tour on the border of Sweden and Norway on Saturday, Jan. 15th.    Then it's back to the US on Sunday! 

Both hotels have free Wi-Fi, so I will have access to e-mail/facebook/etc.




Our hotel in Stockholm

 


The red circle is our hotel in the Stöten ski resort in Sälen



Dog Sled Tour